The 6th Year Annual Treasure Hunt
by maya selene
Summary: an l/j fic which you should only read if you LOVE stories with too much sop. otherwise, ignore it.
1. the treasure hunt and a love letter

"...and for homework tonight I would like you all to complete an essay on Invisibility Potions," Professor Halliway said, ignoring the groans that went around the room. The bell went. "You are dismissed."  
Everyone filed out, complaining loudly about the amount of homework they were being given. Lily waited for her two best friends, Genevieve Gobswopped and Sara LaBeema to catch up before setting off again.  
"Can you believe all this homework we have?" Genevieve said with a dismal sigh. "We have to do our star charts for Astronomy, practice hexes and curses for Defense against the Dark Arts, look at how Mercury disrupts every day life for Divination and now this!"  
"You wouldn't have to study Mercury if you had chosen to do something sensible like me," Lily said loftily.  
Genevieve rolled her eyes at her. "Arithmancy sounds worse by the look of all those number charts you have to do... what's going on?"  
They had reached the end of the corridor and found a huge mob of people (mostly sixth years) all crowded around a bulletin board and talking very loudly.  
"Let's go to the front," Sara yelled over all the noise, and the three of them pushed their way through, stepping on a lot of toes and receiving almost as many dirty looks.  
"Stupid git," Genevieve muttered as a Slytherin named Malcolm Zambini who's toe she had just stepped on called a very rude name after her.  
Lily reached the board first and read the notice out to her friends. "Could all sixth years please meet me in the Great Hall at six o'clock this evening. Professor Dumbledore."  
"Wonder why he wants us to meet him there?" Sara said. Lily shrugged.  
"Let's get out of here," she said.  
"Agreed," Genevieve said, in a rather muffled voice as she was squashed against the wall by a bunch of Slytherins led by Malcolm Zambini.  
They headed for the Ravenclaw common room after that, Genevieve rubbing her head and treating them to a long speech about inconsiderate Slytherins.  
"Yes, we all know how horrible they are, Genevieve," said Lily wearily, bored of it after about five minutes. They stopped in front of an enormous portrait of a dark castle. "Purple Saphires," Lily said to it, and the door of the castle swung open. The three of them stepped through it into the common room.  
"I suppose we'd better get started on all that homework we have," Sara said with a sigh.  
"We'd better," Genevieve agreed.  
*****  
"Hurry up, Lily," Sara said, bouncing around impatiently. "It's six o'clock already, we're going to be late."  
"In a second," Lily said, scribbling the last few lines of her Potions essay down. She hastily stuffed it into her bag and she, Genevieve and Sara hurried upstairs to the Great Hall. Lily stopped in front of the doorway.  
"What's happening?" she wondered. All the house tables had been pushed along the walls, leaving ten smaller tables in the middle, each with four chairs around them. In front of the staff table was a stool, and sitting on it was a very familiar dirty, black hat.  
'The Sorting Hat!" Genevieve said. "We're not going to be re-sorted are we?"  
Just then, Professor Dumbledore walked into the room, followed by most of the staff who sat at the head table. He held up his hand and the chattering in the room stopped.  
"Welcome," he said, beaming around as he usually did. "I expect you're all wondering why I have called you here, so let's get straight to it. We are all here because the Annual Sixth Year Treasure Hunt is about to begin."  
Some people immediately began muttering excitedly to the people next to them, but others looked as blank as Lily felt. What on earth was the Sixth Year Treasure Hunt?  
Dumbledore cleared his throat again and the room fell silent. "For those of you who don't know, the Treasure Hunt is a tradition we have in this school that is held for only sixth years. Each of you will try on the Sorting Hat and will be sorted into one of the ten groups of four. The Sorting Hat chooses according to the people it thinks you will work best with.  
"Now, the object of the hunt is to be the first group to reach the treasure. You will each be given a clue that will lead to the next clue and so on, until you have the final clue that leads to the treasure. Each group's clues will be different except for the last one which will lead to the same place." Dumbledore smiled as he looked at the excited faces in the Hall. "You will have a total of three weeks to solve all the clues to get to the treasure. The final day will be on the twenty-second of October where you will have the entire day off to search for it."  
The entire hall burst into whispers again.  
"Do you think we'll get to be in the same group?" Sara said anxiously to her friends.  
"I hope so," Lily said. "I wonder what the prize is."  
Professor McGonagall suddenly stood up, holding a long piece of parchment in her hand.  
"When I call your name, try on the Sorting Hat then sit at the appropriate table," she said. It was then Lily realized that the tables were labeled one to ten.  
"Ambrose, Alan!" A hard-faced Slytherin boy stepped up to the stool and put the Sorting Hat on. It was still large enough to fall about his ears. The Sorting Hat seemed to think for a moment, then yelled out "Table Six!"  
"Arvelis, Yvonne."  
"Table Nine!"  
"Black, Sirius!"  
All the girls in the Great Hall seemed to swoon as he approached the hat.  
"He's not that cute," Lily said when she saw Genevieve staring at him with a love sick look on her face.  
"Yes he is," she said. "That hair!" Lily couldn't see what was so wonderful about his longish black hair that was tied back in a pony tail, and was about to say so, when the hat suddenly yelled out, "Table Four!" Sirius took of the hat and walked to the table, grinning.  
"Bronwell, Lily!"  
Lily pushed her way to the front, and stuck the hat on her head.  
"Ah, yes, Lily Bronwell, I do remember you well," said a little voice in her ear, the same one that had spoken to her when she had tried it on back in her first year. "Very clever, plenty of courage as well... quick to jump to conclusions which can get you into a bit of trouble... you have enough sense to put some certain Gryffindor boys into place... yes, I think you'll do quite well with them... I'll put you on TABLE FOUR!" The Sorting Hat yelled out the last two words and Lily took off the hat and went to join Sirius at his table. He smiled at her when she sat down and her knees seemed to wobble slightly.  
Okay, so maybe he is cute, Lily thought to herself as she watched him turn his attention back to the Sorting Hat.  
To her disappointment, both Genevieve and Sara were sorted into Table One. They both threw jealous looks at Lily as they went past who was still the only one sitting at the table with Sirius.  
"Longbottom, Frank!"  
"Table Nine!"  
"Lupin, Remus!"  
A Gryffindor boy who was slightly shorter than Lily sat on the stool and put the Hat on. It hesitated a moment before yelling, "Table Four!" Remus pulled the hat off and headed off towards Lily's table where Sirius was cheering loudly. Lily knew they were both good friends, as well as some of the biggest trouble makers in the school.  
Close up, she saw that Remus looked very tired. He had dark rings under his eyes and somehow looked much older than sixteen, but nevertheless, he smiled at Lily as he sat down and was immediately engaged in a conversation with Sirius. Lily turned back to the Sorting. It was going through the P's now.  
"Pettigrew, Peter!" A very short boy with dark hair and watery eyes stepped up to the stool and put on the hat. "Table Six!" the hat yelled, and Peter went to join Alan Ambrose who leered at him unpleasantly from across the table.  
"Potter, James!" Both Sirius and Remus stopped talking and turned to watch James being sorted. Both of them, Lily noticed, had their fingers crossed. James was Sirius' best friend as well as the Quidditch captain for Gryffindor.  
The hat paused for a moment before yelling, "Table Four."  
James took off the hat, grinning, and walked over to the table where he took a seat next to Sirius and joined in their conversation. Lily, now feeling completely left out, looked to see how many people there were left to be sorted.  
"Snape, Severus!"  
A greasy haired Slytherin boy pulled the hat on his head. "Table six!" the hat yelled out.  
Finally, with "Zambini, Malcolm!" ("Table Six!" again), the sorting ended. Looking over at Table Six, Lily could feel herself feeling a bit sorry for poor Peter Pettigrew who was surrounded by evil looking Slytherins. Sirius, on the other hand, seemed to find it incredibly amusing.  
"Whoever would have thought that old Peter would work best with Slytherins?" he said grinning.  
James looked as though he were about to laugh but Remus had turned slightly pale and said testily in a voice Lily wasn't really supposed to hear, "Snape's in his group and he know's we're up to something, Peter's going to crack, I know he will..."  
Sirius looked as though he were about to say something, but James looked at Lily pointedly and said, "Shhh," and Sirius quickly shut up.  
James turned to Lily and smiled, and suddenly, Lily could feel her insides churn much harder than they had when Sirius had smiled at her. She felt herself blushing, a thing she usually tried to avoid doing because it made her look like an over ripe tomato, especially with her flaming red hair.  
"Hi," James said to her. "You're Lily Bronwell, right?"  
"Yes," Lily said, quickly dropping her eyes so she wouldn't have to look it him. It was probably the reason why she also didn't notice Sirius now looking at her with keen interest. He was just considering asking her out when Dumbledore stood up again, silencing the entire hall.  
"Your first clues will be given out now. You will have..." he glanced down at his watch, "half an hour to work on it, and the rest will be done in your spare time."  
He waved his wand and suddenly, a small box materialized on the table. Looking around, Lily saw that one had appeared on every table. She turned back to see Sirius snatch the box and pull it open.  
He took out a small key which he put aside impatiently, and then drew out a small folded piece of parchment which he carefully unfolded and smoothed out on the table. The four of them crowded around to see. Sirius began to read it aloud.  
"My first is the second of March and of fairy  
The fourth of demand and the sixth of contrary  
My second and third are the same as each other  
The first in triathlon and middle of brother  
My fourth can be found on your face, that's for certain  
The second to last in the word that is curtain  
My fifth is as blue as the sky is in Spring  
Where ships go for sailing and seagulls will sing  
Now put these together and you'll find the place  
That will give you the key which will win you the race."  
"I think I've seen one of these in a Muggle book once," Lily said, taking the parchment from Sirius and trying to ignore the fact that James was looking over her shoulder and breathing down her neck. "Each line is a clue that gives you a letter... then I think you put the letters together and they'll give us the place where the next clue is."  
"Okay," said Remus slowly. "My first is the second of March and of fairy... what does that mean?"  
"It means that the first letter of the word is probably the second letter of--"  
But she was cut off because just then, Professor McGonagall stood up and called, "Could all of you please make your way back to your common rooms!"  
"We'll work on it later," said James, taking the parchment from Lily and putting it, and the brass key in his pocket. He grinned. "See you tomorrow, Lily."  
"Bye," Lily said getting up off her chair. She was just leaving when Sirius called her back.  
"Hey, Lily!" She turned around.  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next week?"  
She considered, then grinned and said, "Okay," before turning her back and making her way out of the Hall.  
*****  
Sirius threw Peter onto his bed in disgust.  
"Now tell me, why did I have to carry him all the way here? Why couldn't any of you guys have done it?"  
"Because I'm not strong enough," said Remus matter-of-factly. "And neither is James."  
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right."  
He, James and Remus had walked out of the Great Hall into the Entrance Hall to find Peter on the ground having a nervous break-down because he had just had a run in with a bunch of Slytherin boys. After a lot of argument, Sirius had been chosen to carry him up the marble staircase to their dorm.  
James flopped down on his bed. "What do you guys think of Lily?"  
"I think she's nice," Remus said.  
"She's cute," Sirius said, flopping down on his own bed.  
James rolled his eyes at him. "Is that all you think of?" Sirius laughed.  
"Okay, she's nice, too. What do you think?"  
"She's okay," said James carefully, thinking about how green her eyes were and how she had blushed when he smiled at her.  
"Wonder why she got put into our group instead of Peter," said Remus with a yawn.  
"Because Peter's a brainless git."  
"Sirius!" said James annoyed.  
"I was only joking," Sirius lied quickly. He really didn't like Peter much. "I'm turning the lights out now. G'night."  
*****  
"You lucky, lucky thing," Genevieve said enviously at breakfast the next morning. "You get into a group with the three most gorgeous guys in the school while I'm stuck with Paul Zwigilieth the mega dweeb and Cyril Diggory. Oh, and Sara," she added as an after thought. Sara wacked her with her Transfiguration book, then went back to reading it.  
"We need to get to class," Lily said, glancing at her watch. "We have Charms next."  
The three of them got up and were about to leave the Hall when someone called out, "Hey, Lily!" Lily turned around. It was James.  
"Oh, hi," she said, flushing a little and hoping that Genevieve and Sara wouldn't notice.  
"We're working on the clue after our last class in the library today," James said, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "So be there, okay?"  
"Okay," Lily said.  
"See you, then."  
"See you."  
And James went of to join Sirius and Remus at the Gryffindor table. Lily turned around to see both Genevieve and Sara grinning.  
"What?" she said.  
"Nothing," said Sara loftily, and they both burst out laughing and walked through the Entrance Hall with Lily running behind them yelling, "Tell me!"  
*****  
When Lily got to the library, she couldn't see Sirius, Remus or James anywhere so she put her things down on a table and went to search for a book she needed for Transfiguration.  
She saw the book she wanted on the highest shelf and climbed up the ladder to reach it. She pulled it out and was half way down the ladder when she heard voices that made her stop.  
"He must disappear every month for a reason."  
"It must be pretty big as well or they wouldn't let him miss out on so much school..."  
Lily peered over the top of the books to see who was speaking. It was Severus Snape and Malcolm Zambini.  
"We'll probably be able to worm it out of Pettigrew though."  
"Think he'll tell us the truth?"  
Snape snorted. "We'll threaten to curse him. He'll crack as soon as we take our wands out!"  
Malcolm sniggered."Potter's always looking out for him, though. Him and Black."  
"Mmm. Well, we'll find out where Lupin goes eventually if it's the last thing I do..."  
The voices faded off.  
"Hello, Lily," said an amused sounding voice from behind her.  
Lily started and toppled off the ladder, a pile of books coming down after her. She shook her head dazedly and looked up to see who had spoken. It was James.  
He grinned as he stuck out his hand to help her up. "Who were you spying on?"  
Lily blushed. "Oh... just Snape. And Malcolm Zambini."  
James' face darkened slightly. "Oh. Them." He saw Lily picking up the books that had fallen. "I'll do that," he said, taking them from her and putting them back on the shelf. "Sirius and Remus are waiting for us at the table. Let's go."  
Lily followed James to the table, cheeks still burning with embarrassment. Why did have to catch her doing the most embarrassing spying on Severus Snape, of all people?  
Sirius seemed to be having an argument with Remus, but stopped when he saw Lily approaching them.  
"What took you so long?" he asked as they said down. Then, not waiting for an answer, he pulled out the parchment with the clue on it and put it in the center of the table. "We need to work this out."  
"Oh, right," Lily said. "Well, I was saying yesterday that the first letter of where the next clue is must be starts with the second letter of March and fairy which is..."  
"A," said James, scribbling it down. "And the next one will be..."  
"T," Lily said. "The first of Triathlon and middle of brother. That's the third letter as well."  
"Right," said James, scribbling it down. "So the fourth one must be..."  
"Something you find on your face," said Remus. "I." James wrote it down.  
"So what's the last one?" he asked.  
They all looked down at the parchment.  
"My fifth is as blue as the sky is in Spring / Where ships go for sailing and sea gulls will sing," Lily read. She frowned. "Where ships go for sailing... that sounds like the ocean. But that can't be it." They thought for a moment.  
"The sea!" Sirius yelled out suddenly. Everyone in the library turned to stare at him. He quickly lowered his voice. "C. It must be C."  
"Okay," James said, scribbling it down. "So what does this spell?"  
They leaned over the parchment. "Attic," they all said at the same time.  
"So the next clue must be hidden in there," said Sirius with satisfaction. "Let's go find it tonight."  
"Tonight?" Lily repeated. "Can't we wait till next weekend or something to do it?"  
"You want to find the treasure first right?" Sirius asked her.  
"Well, yeah, but..."  
"So we'll go," he said in a that-settles-it voice.  
"You're not scared are you?" James said, grinning at her.  
"No, but..." Lily sighed. "Alright. We'll do it tonight."  
"Good," James said. "We'll meet you in the Entrance Hall at about twelve then, okay?"  
"Okay."  
"Let's go down to dinner then. I'm starving," said Sirius.  
"You always are," said Remus, rolling his eyes.  
Sirius wacked him over the head with a copy of Hogwarts, A History and then they all went downstairs to eat.  
*****  
When are they going to go to bed? Lily thought irritably, looking at the few people who were left in the common room. Doesn't anyone finish their homework on time these days?  
Beside her, Sara yawned. "Well, I'm going to have a sleep now," she said, getting up and stretching. "Don't stay up too late."  
"Yeah," Lily said. "Good night."  
"'Night."  
Finally, Lily thought as she saw the last person head up the stairs, yawning widely. She got out of her arm chair and stepped out of the portrait. Then she made her way to the Entrance Hall, praying she wouldn't bump into any teachers and wondering vaguely if the verdict was worse if prefects were found wondering around the school at night.  
She got to the Entrance Hall. Nobody was there. Wonderful. They were late. Minutes later she heard footsteps coming down the marble stair case and a voice say, "Honestly, Padfoot, you'll make a right fool of yourself if you do that..."  
"I don't think so, Moony. As a matter of fact I--owww, who stepped on my toe?"  
"Sorry. Is Lily here yet?"  
Lily looked around. She couldn't see anyone, yet she was sure they were somewhere in the room with her. Suddenly, something grabbed the back her neck and she shrieked.  
"Shh! It's only us."  
Sirius suddenly seemed to step out of nowhere, followed by Remus, then James who was holding a long silver cloak.  
"Wow," said Lily impressed. "Is that an Invisibility Cloak?"  
"Yeah. Family heirloom," said James.  
Lily reached out and touched it. "Cool."  
"Are we going to go up to the attic or stay here and talk about Invisibility Cloaks?" said Sirius impatiently.  
"Let's go," said James. "The cloak should fit over the four of us."  
It didn't.  
Lily was squashed in between Sirius and Remus and was definitely not enjoying the experience.  
"Who keeps treading on my toes?" she asked as they made their way up the marble staircase. "Ouch!"  
"Sorry," said Remus. "It's kind of hard to see under here..."  
"Owww, who pulled my hair?"  
"Sorry." It was Sirius this time. "Who just elbowed me in the stomach?"  
"That was me," said James. "I don't get this, it always seemed to fit when Peter was with us..."  
"Maybe it's because Lily's about twice the size of Peter...ow!" he said as Lily kicked him in the shin.  
"Did you just call me fat?"  
"Not exactly, I just meant..."  
"Shhh!" James said suddenly. They all froze as the Bloody Barron floated gauntly past them, eyes staring unblinkingly ahead.  
"Okay, now everyone shut up."  
Lily gritted her teeth as they made their way up more staircases and tried not to scream every time someone stepped on her toes.  
"Are we nearly there?" she asked after ten more minutes of walking.  
"Almost...I think this is it." They stopped in front of a solid looking wooden door.  
James reached out and turned the handle. It opened with a loud creak. "Inside," he whispered holding the door open for them all. He shut it after himself then turned on the light. The bulb was bare and set a very dim glow over the room which was cluttered to every corner with boxes and chests and old furniture.  
"It's huge," Remus moaned. "This is going to take forever."  
"It doesn't look like anyone's set foot in here for centuries," Lily said, looking at the thick coat of dust that lay over everything.  
Sirius suddenly sneezed, sending up a large cloud of dust. "Sorry," he said. "Tell you what, me and Remus will take that end of the room and Lily and James will take the other."  
"Okay," James agreed and he grabbed Lily's elbow and dragged her over to their side of them room.  
"Where should we start?" Lily said, looking around at the dozens of boxes around them.  
"You start with the chest over there and I'll start looking through these boxes," James said.  
Lily shrugged. "Okay," she said and made her way to the large brown chest he had pointed to. She forced it open and looked inside to find some old, moldy looking cushions, not unlike the one's Professor Flitwick usually got them to practice Banishing Charms with.  
"Find anything?" James asked.  
"Just some cushions," Lily said. She turned back to them. Suddenly, she felt someone behind her reach out and push her in. She shrieked as she fell into the cushions, sending up a huge dust cloud. Coughing and spluttering, she looked up to see who it was. It was Sirius, standing over her and laughing like a maniac.  
"Oh, I am going to get you for that," she yelled. She picked up a cushion and flung it into his face as hard as she could. He ducked and it hit James instead.  
"Hey!" he said, flinging it back and before she knew it, it had turned into a full fledged pillow fight with everyone trying to get Sirius and Remus running around getting into everyone's way.  
Suddenly, a badly aimed cushion thrown by Lily went shooting through the hair and hit an ugly pick lamp which toppled to the floor with a loud crash.  
They froze, waiting for Filch to come storming up with Mrs Norris by his side, but minutes passed and to their infinite relief, no one came.  
"Okay, enough messing around," James said. "We need to get this done."  
"Yes, sir!" Sirius said. "Come on, Remus," and they both left for their side of the room.  
Lily was looking through a box that were filled with hundred-year-old Daily Prophets when she heard a snort of laughter come from across the room.  
'Hey, Lily, come look at this," James said. He was holding a thick leather bound photo album. Lily dropped the pile of newspapers she was holding and climbed through the boxes. She peered over James' shoulder and laughed too.  
"It's Dumbledore!" she said. And sure enough, the tall auburn haired man in the photograph waving up at them was none other then Albus Dumbledore. She peered at the picture more closely.  
"Who's that lady he's got his arm around?" she wondered curiously, but James, now bored with the photo album just shrugged. He reached into the crate next to him and pulled out a pulled out a wooden jewelry box.  
"Wonder what's in here," he said, and blew the dust off it. Lily coughed.  
"Ow, I think you just got something in my eye," she said blinking fast and rubbing at it.  
"Oh, sorry." James put the box down and looked down at her in concern. "Stop rubbing, I'll get it out for you."  
"No, it's alright, I can do it..."  
"I will," James said. "Hold still." He cupped her face in his hands. She stopped rubbing and looked up at him.  
"Which eye?" he asked.  
"Left."  
He gently blew at it. Lily blinked.  
"It is out?"  
"Yes." He was still holding her face. Lily stared into his eyes and her stomach did an odd sort of flip flop.  
"I found it!" called a triumphant voice from the other side of the room. Lily suddenly realized that her and James' faces were about an inch apart and jumped back from him. She could feel herself blushing.  
She quickly made her way over to Sirius who was holding up a box identical to the one they had started off with.  
"Where'd you find it?" she asked.  
"In that chest over there," he said, pointing vaguely over his shoulder.  
Remus and James came up behind Lily to see.  
"Open it," said James, coming in closer.  
Sirius' smile disappeared slightly. "Open it?"  
"Yeah. You know. With the key." James rolled his eyes at him. "You do have the key here, don't you?"  
Sirius' smile vanished all together. "Ah. Right. The key."  
"Well, where is it?" asked Lily impatiently.  
"Um..."  
"Sirius! You didn't forget the key did you?"  
"Um... yes."  
Everyone in the room (except Sirius, of course) groaned.  
"Where'd you put it?" Remus asked him. Sirius thought.  
"I think it's under the bed. Or it could be somewhere else. I'm not exactly sure."  
"So you've lost it."  
"No! I've just... put it somewhere and forgotten where it is."  
Lily sighed. "We'll have to look for it tomorrow. I've really got to get some sleep." She yawned and glanced at her watch. "We've been out for nearly three hours!"  
Nobody really felt like using the Invisibility Cloak again as their toes were still recovering from the trip up to the attic, so they decided to just keep near the shadows and hope that nobody would see them.  
"Besides, who would be wondering around at three o'clock in the morning besides us," James logically pointed out.  
So they left the attic, Sirius in the lead, followed by Lily, Remus (who kept stepping on Lily's heels) and James bringing up the rear.  
After about ten minutes of going down stair cases she had never been down before, Lily could see that Sirius was getting frustrated. He stubbed his toe on a wall and swore loudly.  
"Uh, Sirius?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Are you lost?"  
"No, we are lost. Look for a knight in a green armor."  
"Why?"  
"Because there's a secret passageway to the Charms corridor behind him, stupid."  
"Who are you calling stupid," she began but suddenly, Sirius stopped in the middle of a stair case causing Lily to crash into him and Remus to crash into her and James to crash into him.  
"What--" Lily began but Sirius quickly silenced her and Lily heard someone walking along the corridor directly .  
"Come along, my sweet, Peeves has been along here, I just know it, maybe the Headmaster will listen to me this time..."  
"It's Filch," Sirius hissed. "Back up the stairs! Before he sees us!" They began to slowly back up the stairs to last corridor they had been in. Suddenly, there was a loud crash. James had backed right into a suit of armor and the whole thing had come tumbling on top of him.  
'RUN!" Sirius yelled and the four of them dashed to the end of the corridor and skidded around the bend.  
They could hear Filch running after them and yelling, "PEEVES! I've got you now!"  
Lily was running faster than she ever had in her life. By the time they reached the third corridor she was clutching at a stitch in her side and was gasping for breath.  
"In here," said James suddenly, and pulled her in through a door. Remus quickly followed suit and Sirius slammed the door after him. They listened for a moment and heard Filch running straight past them. They sighed with relief.  
Looking around, Lily saw that they were all squeezed in a tiny broom cupboard filled with mops and buckets and dustpans and brushes. If she thought the Invisibility Cloak was uncomfortable, it was nothing compared to this. She was wedged between a bucket and James and had mop sticking into her back.  
"I think we lost him," she said, still breathing hard. Suddenly, she felt something fall into her hair. And she could tell by the snorts of laughter coming from Sirius and Remus's direction that she really didn't want to know what it was. But she had to ask.  
"What just fell into my hair?" Sirius just laughed harder. Remus looked as though he were trying not to but little snorts kept escaping him.  
"Uh... I think it was a spider," James said, trying to suppress a laugh.  
"A WHAT?" Lily shrieked, sounding a bit hysterical. She began clawing at her hair frantically. "Get it out! Get it out!"  
"It's okay, it's okay," said James, still trying not to laugh. "I'll get it out for you.... hold still."  
He began to look through her hair, occasionally bursting into snorts of laughter.  
"It's out," he said triumphantly, holding up a hairy black spider, its legs wriggling about like mad.  
Lily shuddered. "Get it away from me."  
"Okay." He tossed the spider at Sirius who was still laughing. He immediately stopped when he saw the spider was on him.  
"Arrggghhhh! Get it off me! Get it off--"  
Suddenly, the door of the broom cupboard was yanked open and Lily, James, Remus, Sirius and all the brooms and buckets fell out in a tangled mess onto the floor.  
Lily looked up to see who it was.  
We're dead, she thought when she saw Professor McGonagall in her tartan dressing gown glaring furiously down at them all.  
*****  
Two days later, the four of them were on their hands and knees in the Transfiguration room scrubbing the floor with toothbrushes.  
"I suppose it could've been worse," Remus said with a sigh, looking around him. They still had half of the room to go.  
"Really? How?" Lily asked grumpily. She really needed to be working on her Transfiguration. Her chair absolutely refused to turn into a peacock.  
"What's wrong, Lily, is this your first detention or something?" Sirius asked her, grinning. Amazingly enough, he actually seemed to be enjoying the detention and seemed even more delighted when Professor McGonagall took an additional fifty points from Gryffindor.  
"It's my first for this year," Lily muttered, scrubbing at a spot on the ground.  
"This is my sixth," said Remus.  
"My ninth," said James.  
Somehow, nobody was surprised when Sirius said it was his twelfth.  
"You do realize we've only been back for one month?" Lily asked him.  
"Of course," said Sirius. "So there's plenty of opportunities to get more."  
Lily rolled her eyes and went back to scrubbing the floor. "So. Have you found the key yet?"  
"No." Sirius scratched his head, looking perplexed. "I could've sworn I put it under the bed. I've looked everywhere but I can't find it."  
"We'll have to break it open somehow," said James. "Anyone know how to break locks on boxes?"  
Nobody did.  
"This is just great," said Lily, throwing her toothbrush down in disgust. "So we have the next clue but we won't ever get to see it because genius here lost it."  
"Watch it, Bronwell, or I'll curse you."  
"Like I'm afraid of you?"  
"Well, who was scared of the big hairy spider the other night?" Sirius teased. "Woooh!"  
James and Remus burst out laughing. Lily calmly pulled out her wand and turned him upside-down in mid air.  
"Arrrgh! Let me down!"  
"What's the magic word?"  
"Let me down!"  
"Say it!"  
"Okay, okay. Pleeeeease?  
Lily let him suffer for a few more seconds before letting him drop.  
'Owww," Sirius complained, rubbing his head. He considered cursing Lily then decided that the look on her face was too scary and started picking the things that had fallen out of his pocket off the ground instead. He froze.  
"I found the key!" he yelled, holding it up. Lily leapt up and snatched from him.  
"You looked everywhere, huh? Did you ever think of looking IN YOUR POCKET FIRST?"  
"I thought I put it under the bed!"  
"Where's the box?" James asked.  
"In my bag."  
James raced to Sirius' bag, pulled out the box, and tossed it to Lily. She caught it and unlocked it, pulling out another key, this time silver, and piece of parchment which she hastily unfolded.  
"What does it say?" asked Remus, trying to look over her shoulder which was hard to do because she was taller. She read it out loud.  
"Listen to me about lollies that bake  
And things that go creak and ho- hi- ha  
Kind apples that scream for everyone's sakes  
Eat them with berries in a ho- hi- hat."  
Everyone stared.  
"Let me see," said Sirius, snatching it out of Lily's hands.  
"That doesn't make the least bit of sense," said James, shaking his head.  
"Lollies that bake?" Remus scrunched up his nose thoughtfully. "That sounds like Honeydukes. Maybe the next clue is in there."  
"I don't think Dumbledore would hide them outside the school grounds," said Lily. "And what's with the ho-hi's?"  
"It said ih-oh if you look at it backwards."  
"Very helpful, Sirius," said Lily, rolling her eyes.  
The door of the Transfiguration room suddenly burst open.  
"What are you four doing standing around?" Professor McGonagall yelled. "Get back to work!"  
That night, Lily dreamt of baked lollies that kept running away from her while apples stood around and laughed ho-hi-ha.  
*****  
A week later they still hadn't solved the clue and Sirius was getting desperate. He was now calling daily meetings at the library every day after classes but no matter how hard they racked their brains, they just couldn't think of an answer.  
Lily was waiting for the three of them in the library on Thursday to see if they could finally get a solution, but after half an hour of waiting she got fed up an began to pack her things up.  
"Lily!"  
She turned around. It was James. "Where have you been? I've been waiting ages."  
"Remus found the answer to the clue."  
"Really? Then where is he?"  
"He's waiting with Sirius in another room."  
"Then why didn't he just come here and tell us?"  
They left the library.  
"Sirius had...er... a little run in with Snape."  
Lily rolled her eyes. "What did he do?"  
James grinned. "He turned him into a toad and now he's hiding out 'cause he thinks that Snape's waiting around corners ready to curse him."  
"Which room are they in anyway?"  
"Just one we found a few month ago..."  
He suddenly stopped in front of a large tapestry of a dragon in the Charms corridor and pulled it aside. Underneath was a door. Lily stared at it  
"Wow. How'd you find this room?"  
James shrugged. "Sirius did. Go in."  
Lily opened the door and went inside. The room was small and perfectly round, furnished only with a wall-to-wall rug and an old green couch. Sirius was lying stretched out on the floor moaning while Remus was standing over him looking triumphant.  
"Hi," Remus said. "I won the duel."  
"He was lucky," Sirius muttered, getting up. Lily grinned.  
"Sure, Sirius. So Remus, you solved the clue?"  
"Oh, yeah." Remus rummaged into his pocket and pulled out the parchment. The three of them crowded around to see.  
"It's the first letter of each line," Remus explained. "They spell L-A-K-E. Then there's the last letter of each line which spells E-A-S-T. So the next clue must be in the east of the lake."  
The other three just sort of looked at each other. Then Lily said, "Isn't the lake kind of deep?"  
James wrinkled up his nose. "Nah. Only in the middle I think. The shore's quite shallow."  
"Shall we go?" asked Sirius.  
"Now?' said Lily.  
James shrugged. "Why not?"  
*****  
A few minutes later they were all at the east end of the lake, looking down at it uncertainly.  
"Aren't there giant squid in here?" Lily asked.  
"Yeah," said Remus. "And Grindylows too. Not to mention merpeople."  
"That makes me feel so much better."  
"Who cares?" James said. "Let's just get this over with." He suddenly jumped in, robes and all then came splashing back up, gasping for breath. "It's freezing in here!"  
Sirius looked at Lily. "Ladies first," he said kindly.  
Lily looked at the murky grayness of the water and pulled a face. "You can go."  
"But I insist." Sirius suddenly whipped out his wand and before Lily could do anything he pointed it at her and yelled out, "Looparoma!"  
Lily shrieked as she suddenly found herself shooting up into the air. She landed on James who caught her with an "Oomph!" and both of them fell into the water and came up with their noses touching. They stayed that way for a few seconds, staring into each others eyes until Lily suddenly blushed and backed away awkwardly.  
By that time, Sirius and Remus had already joined them in the water and were trying to find the next clue. Lily and James quickly joined them and soon they were all diving in and out, trying to find the clue and having water fights at the same time. Lily finally caught sight of it wedged under a rock and called the others over.  
"Who's going to dive in and get it?" she asked, shivering. It was already chilly to begin with and the sun was now sinking slowly over the horizon.  
"I will," said Sirius, and he quickly dived under and resurfaced a few moments later, holding the box and looking triumphant. "Got it."  
"Good. I'm getting out," said Lily and quickly splashed back to shore.  
"Don't forget you're going to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow," Sirius called after her. "Meet me at the Entrance Hall at about three, okay?"  
Lily nodded and waved, then made her way, dripping wet, back to the castle.  
*****  
Lessons had finished early that day so that the students could spent more time in Hogsmeade. Lily went back to her dormitory to put her things away. She was just about to leave to meet Sirius in the Entrance Hall when she caught sight of her wet robes from yesterday. She picked them up, thinking she could drop them off in the laundry on her way out when suddenly, a folded piece of parchment fell out. Frowning, she picked it up and read:  
  
Lily,  
I love you when you're smiling  
I love you when you're sad  
I love you when you're kidding  
I love you when you're bad  
I love you when you're nosy  
I love you when you're blue  
The reason that I love you  
Is simply cos you're you  
  
Please tell me  
Do you love me too?  
  
Lily stared at note for a moment in shock. Then, still clutching the note, she slowly lowered herself onto her bed.  
Who had given it to her? It certainly hadn't been there before she had gone diving in the lake. It must have been put in there after or during it. That left Remus, James and Sirius.  
Remus... she scrunched up her nose thoughtfully. He was probably the most thoughtful of the lot of them, but somehow, she couldn't imagine him writing a love letter to her and slipping it into her pocket when she wasn't looking.  
James? Lily could feel her face heat up when she thought of him. She definitely liked him the best of the three of them. But he never seemed to look her way twice and she thought her chances with him were close to zero.  
So that left... Sirius! But, Lily thought, he didn't seem like the romantic type. And he got on her nerves a bit as well.  
On the other hand, he had asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him. But he had barely knew her then...  
Lily moaned. Maybe it was Sirius.  
She liked Sirius.  
But definitely not in that way.  
*****  
Remus was going down the Charms corridor with someone suddenly yanked him into an empty classroom. He looked up, and to his surprise, found that it was Lily.  
"Hi," he said. He saw that she was still gripping his arm. "Um, you can let of me now."  
"Huh?" said Lily distractedly. She looked down at him. "Oh," she said and let go.  
"Sirius is looking for you in the Entrance Hall."  
"Is he?" she said. She was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst out, "Does Sirius write poems?"  
"Huh?" said Remus, now completely confused.  
"You know. Like rhymes."  
"Um... no. Not that I know of." Remus looked at her. "Mind telling me why you're asking?"  
Lily sighed. "I found this in my pocket after the episode with the lake yesterday." She thrust the note at Remus. He unfolded it and read it. His eyes widened suddenly.  
"Ah," he said, handing it back to her. "So. You think it's Sirius?"  
Lily shrugged. "Who else would be?"  
"James?" Remus suggested casually. She flushed suddenly.  
"No. I don't think it's him." She grabbed her bag and began to move towards the door. "I have to meet Sirius."  
"Oh. And Lily?"  
"Yeah?" she said, turning around.  
"Can you do me a favor and don't show that note to Sirius?"  
"Why?" Lily asked confused.  
"Um... just don't."  
"Okay," said Lily slowly.  
"Have a good time."  
"Thanks."  
"See you."  
"Bye."  
*****  
Remus found James doing homework in the common room. He grabbed his arm and dragged him up the stairs.  
"I need to talk to you," he muttered.  
"Ow! Where are you taking me?"  
Remus didn't answer, he just dragged him to the dormitory and shut the door.  
"Mind telling me what this is all about?" James asked grumpily, rubbing his elbow.  
"Um... you didn't write a poem to Lily by any chance, did you?"  
James suddenly turned red and became very interested in the floor. "No."  
"Are you sure? 'Cos Lily showed me one. She found it in her pocket after swimming yesterday."  
"Oh." James turned even more red. "Well, I might have."  
Remus raised his eyebrows. "Might?"  
"Okay, okay, I did." James sighed and suddenly flopped down on his bed. "She hated it, right?"  
"I wouldn't say that," Remus said. He grinned. "She thought it was Sirius."  
"How did you know it was me then?"  
"I recognized your handwriting." He flopped on the bed next to James. "If you like her you really should tell her, you know."  
"She likes Sirius," he said, staring at the canopy above him.  
"You think?"  
"Yeah. I'm positive."  
"Why?"  
"Because she's going to Hogsmeade with him, remember?" He suddenly bolted upright in horror. "Oh no! She might show him the poem!"  
"It's okay," Remus assured him. "I told her not to."  
"Then I really hope she doesn't. Because Sirius will never let me hear the end of it!"  
*****  
"Um, Lily?"  
Sirius waved his hand in front of her face. She jumped.  
"Oh, sorry. What is it?"  
"Well, I've just asked you the same thing twice now, but you keep staring out the window like you're a million miles away."  
"Sorry," she said again. She looked at him. "What did you want to know?"  
"Do you want another Butterbeer?"  
Lily looked at her bottle. It was still half-full. "No. I'm right," she said and went back to staring out the window.  
Sirius sighed. He wasn't used to being ignored by girls. He frowned slightly, wondering what she was thinking, then decided to ask her.  
"Anything on your mind?" Lily jerked.  
"No," she said a little bit too quickly. She stared out the window again for a moment then turned back to him and suddenly burst out, "Well, you should know, shouldn't you?"  
"What?" said Sirius, taken aback.  
"The poem!" she exploded, jumping up out of her seat. "The poem you wrote to me yesterday."  
"What poem?"  
"Don't lie, Sirius!" she yelled. "I know you wrote it to me and I've been fretting all day wondering how I'm going to tell you that I don't feel the same way, so I'm really, really sorry but I just have to say that I don't love you but we can still be friends, right?"  
Sirius stared at her with his jaw hanging open for a few seconds. Then he said, "Nice speech, Lily, except for one little thing. I didn't write you the poem."  
Lily stared at him, speechless. "What?" she spluttered.  
"I didn't write you the poem."  
"Oh," she said in a small voice. She sat back down. "But Remus told me not to show it to you. So I thought..."  
"What? He told you not to show it to me?"  
"Yes."  
"Can I have a look then?"  
"Okay," Lily said slowly. She took a folded piece of parchment from her pocket and gave it him. He unfolded it and immediately choked, spreading crumbs everywhere.  
"Sirius!" Lily yelled, brushing crumbs off her robes.  
"Sorry," he said. He quickly swallowed. "You found this after the lake episode yesterday?"  
"Yes."  
"Ah," said Sirius nodding. He handed her back the parchment. "That explains it."  
"That explains what?"  
"Nothing." Lily looked as Sirius as if he were crazy. His face had gone all red and it looked as though he were about to burst out laughing.  
"Lily?" he said after a while.  
"Yes?"  
"Can I ask you a question?"  
"Yeah."  
"Do you like James?"  
Lily suddenly dropped her fork and had to duck down under the table to get it. When she came up her face was all red.  
"I think I've had enough," she said brightly. "Let's go to the Shrieking Shack and..."  
"You haven't answered my question yet!"  
"What question?" Lily said, although she knew very well what it was.  
"Do you like James?"  
"Um...well...' said Lily, going even redder. She twiddled with her fork. "He's nice. I like him. As a friend of course," she added quickly seeing the smirk on Sirius' face. "But not it that way."  
"Right," said Sirius, still smirking. "Whatever you say, Lil'."  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
"Nothing," said Sirius loftily, getting out of his seat. "Let's go back to the castle. I think I've had enough."  
*****  
James was still in the dormitory, lying on his bed and waiting for Sirius to come back. He looked at his watch. What on earth were they doing for so long?  
"No need to panic," Remus said. "She might not have told him."  
"Yeah, right," James said. "Bet she did."  
"But I told her not to!"  
"Does everyone always do what you ask them to?"  
"Point taken."  
"When are they coming back?" James moaned.  
Just then, the door burst open and Sirius waltzed in with a massive smirk on his face. He shut the door, and for a moment James thought that Lily hadn't told him, but his hopes were immediately dashed when Sirius opened his mouth and began to sing, "I love you when you're smiling, I love you when you're sad. I love you when you're kidding..."  
James moaned and buried his face under his pillows. Remus patted his back comfortingly, though he looked like he were trying not to laugh at the same time.  
"Aw," said Sirius grinning. "Why didn't you tell me you were in love, Prongs?"  
"I wonder," said James to the pillow.  
"She thought it was me," said Sirius laughing. "She gave me this whole big speech on how she didn't feel the same way. Then I told her that I didn't write it so she showed me the note. Then I asked her if she likes you."  
"You what?!" James lifted his head from his pillow and stared a him in disbelief. Then he moaned and slumped back down again.  
"It's okay," Sirius assured him. "She likes you. She dropped her fork under the table and went all red."  
"Maybe you should tell her you wrote it," Remus said to him.  
"No way!"  
"She bound to find out sooner or later. Probably sooner," he added, a wicked smile glinting his face.  
Just then, Peter opened the door and walked into the room. He took one look at Sirius' grinning face, James with his face under the pillow and Remus still patting his shoulder comfortingly and asked, "What happened?"  
Sirius burst out laughing.  
"Prongs is in love."  
************************************************************************************  
A/N: That's it for the first part. The next bit will be coming out soon. I wasn't planning to having it out as a series but when I was typing it up I realized that it was going to be waaaaaaaaay to long. So it'll be in two parts. Or maybe three. Depends really. There'll be kissing in the next bit. Review?  
  
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JK Rowling. Except for the characters who belong to me which I think are only Genevieve and Sara. Oh, and Professor Halliway. And the poem which belongs to God-knows-who (absolutely no idea who wrote it).  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. lily and james fall in LOVE, a tragedy o...

It was already dark but Lily didn't feel like going inside. She stared out across the lake which lay dark and still with a glowing crescent hanging over it. Who had sent her the love note?  
It wasn't Remus. And she was quite sure it wasn't Sirius. So that left...  
"Can I sit here?" Lily jumped. She hadn't heard anyone come up behind her. She glanced around. It was James.  
Lily felt her cheeks grow hot and wondered if he knew she had just been thinking about him.  
"Sure." She moved over to give him space and he sat down beside her.  
"What are you doing out here so late?"  
"Nothing." Lily looked down at her feet. "What are you doing?"  
James shrugged and glanced up at the sky. "Look up."  
Lily looked up and saw a comet pass over head.  
"Wow. It's so pretty," she said.  
"Yeah," said James. "It is."  
They were silent for a while, staring out across the lake.  
"You know, Muggles used to think that comets were bad omens of things that were about to happen," Lily said.  
"Really?" James sounded surprised. "We used to think that they were a sign of love between two people."  
"I wonder if it's true," Lily mused.  
James suddenly grinned. "Let's find out," he said, and before Lily could do anything, he had leaned over and kissed her on the lips. She could feel her head spinning very hard and when he pulled apart, all she could do was gape up at him, speechless. Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her.  
"Um... When you two are quite finished, you have to go back inside the castle," said a voice. Both of them jumped and looked around. It was Sirius who was smirking all over his face. "McGonagall saw you two out here from the window and told me to tell you to come in."  
"Oh," said Lily, turning as red as her hair. "Um... I have to go back to my common room anyway." She quickly jumped up and scampered off. Sirius turned to James  
"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" he asked him.  
"What?" said James distractedly. He was still staring after Lily who was climbing up the stairs to the castle.  
Sirius sighed. "Never mind. We have to get inside before McGonagall comes out and kills us."  
*****  
Next day Remus, Sirius, James and Lily were in the library trying out the next clue. Or at least Remus was trying. He looked around him and sighed.  
James was trying to catch Lily's eye, Lily was trying to avoid looking at James and Sirius was watching them both with an amused expression on his face.  
"Could you guys concentrate here," Remus said. "We've only got a week to work out the rest of the clues."  
"Okay," Lily said quickly. She took the parchment from him. "It looks like some sort of map," she said. "See all the lines crossing over each other?"  
"What does the WW stand for?" James wondered, looking over Lily's shoulder. Lily quickly thrust the map at Sirius.  
"It must be some sort of place at school. Or at least near the school," Sirius said. "See the X? It's right in the middle of the paper and that's where the next clue must be."  
"But where?" Remus wondered.  
They pondered over the map for hours, coming up with both smart and stupid suggestions to where it might lead to. Sirius came up with most of the stupid ones.  
"Maybe it's in Moaning Myrtles's bathroom," he said sarcastically. "Or maybe it's up the chimney in McGonagall's office."  
"How do you know about Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?" Lily said, staring at him. "You haven't actually been in there have you?"  
"Um..." said Sirius, going very red, but he was saved by Madame Pince who chose that moment to kick them all out of the library and into the freezing cold corridor.  
"Great," James muttered. "What are we going to do now?"  
"Let's just work on it in the common room until we figure it out," said Sirius.  
"Oh, great, I get left out again?" Lily said huffily.  
"You can come," Sirius said. Lily stared at him. He sighed. "Lily, who cares about rules? We have to beat the Slytherins to the treasure. Now let's go!"  
He quickly dragged Lily down the stairs before she could say another word and stopped in front of a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.  
"Pumpkin juice,' he said to her. The lady blinked up at him sleepily and swung open to reveal a large hole that led to the common room. "In you go," Sirius said and pushed her through the hole. Lily landed with a crash on the carpet and had a good look around (obviously, she had never been in the Gryffindor common room before). It looked pretty much the same as the Ravenclaw common room did, except there was less yellow. Thankfully, there were only a few seventh years left studying for their N.E.W.Ts, and they didn't even look up when Lily came in.  
"Okay," Sirius said after he had seated himself down on the ground. Remus was on an armchair and Lily and James were beside each other on beanbags. "We have to figure out what this means."  
They spent another few hours arguing and getting told off by the seventh years for making too much noise and disturbing everyone, until finally, they all dropped off to sleep.  
*****  
Sirius woke up very early in the next morning, mostly because he had spent most of the night sleeping on the floor and was very stiff and tired. He groaned and got up. Beside him, Remus was in his armchair, snoring softly with his mouth slightly open. Then he looked at James and nearly passed out.  
Somehow during the night, Lily must have rolled off her beanbag and onto James' because they were curled up sleeping together like a married couple. Lily had her head on his chest and James had his arm around her and their legs were all in a tangle. Sirius grinned and poked Remus in the stomach.  
"Wake up," he hissed. Remus woke and looked up at Sirius blearily.  
"What?" he said sleepily. Sirius pointed at James and Lily and suddenly, Remus was properly awake.  
"I'll get the camera," he said and sprinted up the stairs to their dormitory. Sirius was still watching them, smirking, when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He turned around and found himself staring at a second year boy who was very well known for telling on anyone who was breaking the rules. Both of them stared at each other.  
"What are you doing here?" he asked Sirius. Then he looked down and saw Lily and James on the floor. "What are they doing here? She's not a Gryffindor," he said pointing at Lily. Sirius thought fast.  
"You're right," he said. "She's not. But you won't tell anyone about this, right?"  
"Yes, I will," he began loudly, but Sirius cut him off.  
"Listen, I'll give you a galleon if you go back to your dormitory and keep your mouth shut."  
The boy seemed to be considering. "Three galleons," he said.  
Sirius sighed and nodded. "Okay, three," he said, and dug into his pockets. The things I do for my best friend, he thought as he handed them over.  
The boy headed up the stair just as Remus came running down.  
"Who was that?" he asked, staring after him. Sirius shrugged.  
"Just some kid." He looked at Remus' old Polaroid camera. "Ill take picture," he said taking it from him. He snapped the shot just as Lily woke up.  
"Hello Lily," he said, grinning at her mischievously. Lily blinked.  
"Hello. What..." She looked around her. "Where am I?" Then she looked down at James and jumped. "Oh my," she said and scooted away from him very quickly. Sirius and Remus watched in fascination as she slowly turned a very dark shade of red.  
"Did you have a nice sleep?" Remus asked pleasantly. Lily seemed to turn even redder, if that was possible.  
"Um... you know, I really have to get going," she said. She scampered over to the portrait hole.  
"Don't forget," Sirius called after her. "We're meeting in the library at two today to work out the rest of the clue."  
Lily waved and climbed out. The portrait door closed behind her.  
"She sure left in a hurry," Sirius observed. He looked around. "Looks like old James is waking up."  
James knew immediately by the looks on his friends' faces that something had happened. And that he probably wouldn't like it either.  
"What?" he said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.  
"How was your sleep last night?" Sirius asked him innocently.  
"Okay, I guess," James said cautiously.  
"Just okay?" Remus said. "You didn't have any dreams about, say, a certain Ravenclaw prefect?"  
James stared. How had he known he had dreamt about her last night? Maybe he was finally getting the hang of Divination.  
"What are you talking about?" he said.  
Both Sirius and Remus burst out laughing. Sirius whipped something out from behind his back and handed it to him with flourish.  
"Enjoy," he said smiling, then he put his arm around Remus and they both went off out of the room for breakfast.  
James slowly turned over the thing Sirius had given him and almost died.  
It was a photograph of him and Lily sleeping together on the beanbags. How on earth had that happened?  
James moaned and flopped backwards onto his beanbag.  
She was never going to like him now.  
*****  
Lily didn't exactly feel like spending her Sunday afternoon back in the library working out the clue. That had done it all yesterday and still hadn't found a solution.  
Then there was the whole issue with James. Maybe it was him who had sent her the love note. After all, he had kissed her that night under the stars and then she had accidentally slept with him last night...  
Lily shook her head. He probably would never have done it if she hadn't been stupid enough to roll off her sleeping bag and onto his in the first place.  
She entered the library half an hour late just as the others were about to leave.  
"Lily!" said Sirius, grabbing her arm and dragging her down the stairs. "We worked out the clue. Come on, we're going to look for it now."  
"Now?" Lily said, running beside him. "Where are we going, exactly?"  
"The Forbidden Forest," said Remus. "That's where the clue is."  
"The WHAT?" Lily yelled. She stopped dead in her tracks. Obviously, she hadn't heard correctly. "Did you just say the Forbidden Forest?"  
"Yep," Remus said. "See, the WW stands for Whomping Willow. And we just have to follow the tracks to the next clue."  
"Really?" said Lily weakly. They were outside, and Sirius was now half dragging Lily who was in shock to the edge of the forest.  
"Obviously, she hasn't been in there before," he said.  
"And you have?"  
"Of course. Heaps of times. With Moony and Wormtail and Prongs."  
Lily stared at him. "With who?"  
Sirius sighed. "Never mind. We're here." Lily looked into the forest and shuddered.  
"Aren't there werewolves in there?"  
"Yeah. And I think there are a few vampires roaming around as well," said Sirius helpfully.  
James pulled out his wand. "Lumos," he said, and it lit up. He peered into the forest. "Looks okay."  
"I'll lead," Sirius said bounding to the front and forgetting that he holding Lily up. She promptly fell to the ground. James held out his hand and she grabbed it and pulled herself up.  
"Thanks," she muttered without looking at him. They both looked down and realized that they were still holding hands and let go extremely quickly.  
"Let's go," Sirius said, leading the way into the forest. Remus followed suit and Lily plodded after him with James bringing up the rear.  
Lily had only taken about five steps in the forest when she felt herself step on something soft and very furry. She quickly lit her wand and looked to see what it was.  
It was a small creature with grey fur and very sharp nails. And it was dead.  
"Yuck," Lily muttered, wondering how her life had come to walking though the Forbidden Forest with three boys she barely knew, one of which she had a crush on and had no idea whether he liked her.  
They walked silently for a while, not wanting to attract any attention from animals they really didn't want attention from. Lily was now walking so close to Remus she kept stepping on his heels, but he didn't seem to notice, he kept looking nervously out to the side to see if anything was out there.  
Suddenly, something dark and feathery came hurtling out of the trees and straight into Lily's face. She shrieked and fell backwards into James, getting themselves into a tangled mess. The feathery thing made off for the trees, squawking loudly.  
Sirius and Remus were beside themselves laughing as James and Lily untangled themselves with as much dignity as they could muster.  
"It was an owl," Sirius said laughing.  
"I thought they were only meant to come out at night," Lily said grumpily as she pulled herself up.  
"It's always night in the forest," said Remus darkly. Sirius rolled his eyes.  
"Don't be stupid. Come on, we've got to find this clue before dark."  
So they continued on their way, Lily scratching at a graze on her elbow and James muttering to himself about torn robes and what his mother was going to say when he got home in the background.  
"We're here," Sirius said at last. Lily walked on and found herself in a small clearing. In the centre of the clearing was a small stone table with a pitcher of lemonade on it and a glass.  
"Well, that's nice," said Lily. "Is this meant to be the clue?"  
Sirius wrinkled up his nose. "Nah. Don't think so." He looked around. "Where's James?"  
"Here," James said, stepping out of the trees. "Got held up... walked into a spider's web." He looked around and noticed the lemonade. "Hey, who would've thought they'd be so considerate? I'm thirsty." He moved towards it.  
"Uh, James? I wouldn't drink that if I were you," Lily said.  
"Why not?" James asked, pouring himself a glass.  
"Because... I don't know, someone might have poisoned it or something."  
"Aw, how sweet," said Sirius grinning. "Looking out for your new boyfriend, Lil'?"  
Lily ignored him. "Look, I really don't think you should be drinking that."  
"Nothing's going to happen," James said. He raised the glass to his lips. "Watch." He gulped the entire glass down.  
They waited.  
Nothing happened.  
James was about to say I-told-you-so when suddenly, feathers erupted up his neck. "What the..." he managed to gasp out before a beak suddenly shot out of his face.  
Lily and Sirius collapsed on the floor laughing. Remus was desperately trying not to but little snorts kept escaping him.  
"You know, James, that beak really suits you," Lily said giggling. James gave her a ferocious look, but couldn't say anything back because he had a beak.  
"Look," said Remus suddenly, pointing to the table. They all turned around, James with great difficulty because his legs had just transformed into chicken legs and was rapidly shrinking.  
On the table had appeared three more bottles. Sirius recovered enough to go over and read them. "Aberdine, Veneswellium and Portsvine."  
"What?" Lily said blankly. Potions was easily her worst subject.  
"We have to give him the one which will change him back. I think Aberdine is for animal transformations," he said, picking it up. "Now where's James?"  
He turned around and burst out laughing, nearly dropping the bottle. James stared back furiously at him and scratched at the ground in annoyance. He was now, totally and completely, a pure white chicken. His robes were on the floor beside him.  
Since it looked as though both Lily and Sirius were in no condition to give him the potion, Remus took the bottle from Sirius and poured a few drops of it down James' throat.  
Immediately the chicken that was James began to grow. The face changed first, and it seemed to be getting redder and redder. After a few minutes, it became obvious why.  
"Um, Lily? Maybe you'd better turn around," Remus said.  
"Oh, right." Lily turned around and Sirius fell about into another fit of laughter.  
"Don't worry, James, I won't let her look," Sirius said, pretending to cover Lily's eyes. She swatted him away.  
After a while she said, "Can I turn around now?"  
"Yeah." She turned to see James fully dressed and looking himself again. Sirius was still wiping tears of laughter from his eyes and Remus was standing around with an amused expression on his face.  
Suddenly James choked. "Argg!" he spluttered. "Somfink stuck in my froat..." Remus whacked him on the back and he spat something small and round out of his mouth.  
'What is it?" Lily asked. She stared at it closely. It seemed to be growing. The four of them watched in fascination as the thing got larger until it became the small box identical to the ones they had found with all the other clues on it.  
"Wow," Lily said, and bent down to pick it up. Then she realized that it was still covered in James' spit. "Ugh, maybe you'd better take it."  
James picked it up and shoved it into his pocket. He looked up.  
"We should back to the castle," he said. "It's getting dark."  
He took the lead this time, followed by Lily, Remus and Sirius in that order. They were halfway there when Lily heard a clicking noise behind them. She stopped.  
"What's that?" she whispered. They all listened.  
"I don't hear anything," said James.  
"Listen again."  
Then the noise come, only much closer.  
"What..." Sirius began to say but before he could say anything else, a giant spider loomed up behind him.  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" He screamed instead.  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Remus yelled.  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Lily agreed.  
"Let's! Get! Outta! Here!" James yelled, and he grabbed Lily's arm and ran. The four of them stumbled over roots and got stung in the face with branches, but didn't stop running until they were out of the forest and in the Entrance Hall of the castle.  
"That," Lily said, flopping breathlessly down on the floor. "Was way too close."  
"I am never going in there again," Remus said, flopping down next to her.  
"Agreed," James said, flopping next to him.  
"Absolutely," Sirius said, flopping down next to James.  
Professor Sinistra chose that moment to come gliding down the stairs. She stared at the four of them lying on the floor and immediately got suspicious.  
"What are you four doing down here?" she demanded.  
"Playing fishing," said Sirius.  
Which was how Lily ended up with her second detention for the year.  
*****  
It was Wednesday and Sirius, Remus, James and Lily were in the library (again) working on the last clue that would lead to the treasure.  
"It looks like another map," Lily said, studying it.  
"Mmm. It does. But I have no idea what of," said Sirius. "And this one doesn't have an X on it."  
"It looks sort of lopsided if you ask me," James said. "All ups and downs..."  
"Maybe we have to go into the Forbidden Forest again," Remus suggested. Lily wrinkled up her nose.  
"Nah," she said. Dumbledore wouldn't make us do the same thing twice. It has to be a different place."  
"Yeah," Sirius said. Then he looked at his watch. "Looks like it's time for our detention."  
Lily sighed as she packed her things up. "You know, I am never going to forgive you for this, Sirius."  
Sirius looked at her, all wide eyed and innocent. "What did I do?"  
"Playing fishing? That has to be the most pathetic thing I have ever heard in my life. And I've heard a lot."  
Sirius bowed his head modestly. "I try my best."  
They walked outside to the Quidditch pitch where Hagrid was supposed to meet them.  
Apart from themselves, Peter Pettigrew was also having a detention for sleep walking into Professor Vector's office by mistake and scaring the hell out of him, and also Severus Snape from Slytherin for blowing up James' cauldron during Potions, making sure that every single Gryffindor got hit by the Shrinking Solution that was in there. had taken a while for everyone to be found. He gave them all an unpleasant leer as they approached and turned the other way.  
"Right, you lot," said a great booming voice behind them. Lily turned around to see Hagrid coming towards them, holding three brooms, some buckets and some cleaning stuff.  
"You lot have ter clean the Quidditch goal posts today."  
Lily looked nervously up at them. "They're kind of high, aren't they?"  
"Yeah. You'll have to go up on broomsticks in pairs so that one of you can fly and the other can clean."  
"I don't fly," said Lily quickly.  
"Neither do I," said Remus and Peter at the same time. Both of them looked rather pale.  
"That's 'kay. Sirius, James and Severus all play Quidditch so you can each go with one of them. Sirius, you're with Peter, James with Remus and Lily with Severus. Now get to work. I'll be coming out later to see how you're going."  
He dumped all the stuff on the ground and went off to do God-knows-what.  
Lily picked up a bucket filled it with the cleaning stuff and looked at Snape who was waiting impatiently for her by the broomstick.  
"Let's go," he said. He mounted the broomstick and looked at Lily who was hesitating. "Scared?" he asked her.  
"No," she said, and quickly hopped on behind him. She put the bucket between them and grabbed hold of his waist.  
"Ready," Snape asked.  
"Yeah," Lily's said. Snape suddenly kicked off and Lily felt herself shooting into the air. She clutched hold of him even tighter and hoped that she wouldn't die.  
*****  
James looked at Lily and Snape who were shooting around on the broomstick and tried to calm down.  
I am not jealous, I am not jealous, he said to himself.  
He was so busy looking at them that he flew right past the goal posts and nearly slammed into a tree.  
"James!" said Peter reproachfully as he toppled and nearly fell off.  
"Sorry Peter," James said, holding out his hand to help him back on but not really concentrating at all.  
He was still looking at Lily and Snape.  
*****  
"Aren't you done yet?" Snape asked Lily.  
She gave the post a final wipe. "Yeah, I'm done. We need to go across and do the other one."  
"Hold on," Snape said and she grabbed hold of his waist again and shot off.  
As Lily began to clean the next hoop, she looked around at the view. It really wasn't that scary when you got used to it. She could see James and Peter on the other side of the pitch, still cleaning their first goal post and Sirius and Remus nearby, cleaning the one next to them.  
Squinting around, she could also see the top Hogwarts, full of ups and down and crack in all the most unusual places. She looked harder. It seemed to look vaguely familiar it seemed. Almost like she'd seen it on a piece of paper before...  
"Lily!" Snape snapped. "What are you doing?"  
"Oh. Sorry," Lily muttered and turned back to the task on hand, thinking hard as she worked.  
Then it dawned on her.  
She had just found the place where the treasure had been hidden.  
*****  
Next morning, Lily was on her way to Charms with Genevieve and Sara when she was stopped by Professor Flitwick who was dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief.  
"Lily," he squeaked. "The headmaster wants to see you." Then he burst into tears and ran off down the hall.  
"What," Lily said, looking at her friends, "was that all about?"  
Genevieve shrugged. "No idea... you'd better go."  
Lily sighed. "Yeah... see you later then."  
"See you," they said and she took off down the hall to Dumbledore's office. She stopped in front of the stone gargoyle, wondering what the password was when it suddenly jumped aside and she found herself looking at Dumbledore.  
"Ah, Miss Bronwell," he said, his voice unusually grave. "Come in, please." He moved aside and Lily followed him up the moving staircase. A feeling of nervous anticipation had settled in her stomach. What was going on?  
"In my office," Dumbledore said, opening the door. Lily went inside. Dumbledore closed the door after her and motioned for her to take a seat. He sat behind his desk and stared at her through his half-moon spectacles. The twinkle had gone out of his eyes.  
"Professor Dumbledore, what do want me to talk about?" Lily asked. Her insides were churning rather unpleasantly now. Dumbledore looked her and sighed.  
"It's not easy telling you this," he said. "Your parents were involved in a car crash yesterday."  
"They're okay though, aren't they?" Lily whispered, knowing what the answer was going to be. Dumbledore shook his head.  
"They died almost instantly," he said gently.  
LIly felt the color drain out of her face. She suddenly felt as though someone had punched a hole right inside her, a hole that could never be filled again.  
"Lily?" Dumbledore asked gently. "Are you okay?"  
Lily nodded slowly, still not quite believing her parents were gone.  
"Do you want me to take you down to the Ravenclaw common room?"  
Lily shook her head. "I'll be fine," she whispered. She could feel the tears coming. She blinked them back.  
"Are you sure?"  
She nodded.  
"Then your excused from classes for the rest of the day. You can come back when you're feeling better."  
Lily walked slowly down the stairs, not really seeing or feeling anything until she suddenly crashed into someone.  
"Oh, sorry," she muttered glancing up to see who it was. It was James.  
"Lily?" he said. She quickly ducked past him but he caught her arm. "What's wrong?"  
"Nothing," she said, trying to pull out of his grip.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes," she said, forcing a horrible smile. "I'm fine." Yeah, right, she thought to herself. My parents are dead and I'm fine? How completely and totally stupid is that?  
Suddenly she burst into tears.  
"Oh, Lily," James said, not quite knowing what to do. He stood there helplessly, staring at her for a while, then he put his arm around her and gently led her to the secret room behind the tapestry.  
He pulled her over to the couch and hugged her. "What's the matter?" he asked. "What's happened?"  
Lily couldn't say anything, she was crying too hard, but even if she could, she didn't think she'd even want to tell James. He didn't let go of her though, he held on to her for God-knows-how-long with her sobbing into his robes the entire time.  
Then slowly, the whole story came out, how her parents had died and how she felt so alone and scared...  
James didn't interrupt at all, he listened to her and when she finished, he just held her tighter. Finally, she pulled away from her.  
"I-I'm sorry," she said. "I've messed up your robes."  
"It's okay," said James quietly.  
"I must look horrible," she said, rubbing her eyes which were red and blotchy. James smiled down at her tenderly.  
"You'd look beautiful in a paper bag," he said, then suddenly, he raised her face to meet his and kissed her.  
Sirius chose that moment to burst into the room.  
"James are you in here? "  
James and Lily quickly broke apart. Sirius looked at them.  
"Ah. Well, when you're finished, McGonagall wants to see you James. She wants to know why you haven't been in classes all day. And then, um, both of you meet back here so we can figure out where the treasure's hidden."  
He winked at them and walked out the door again. James turned back to Lily.  
"I have to go now. Will you be okay?"  
Lily nodded. "Thanks, James... for everything."  
"That's what friends are for," he said, and left the room.  
*****  
Lily went back to her dormitory and splashed her face with water. Then she re-did her hair and changed her robes and felt much better.  
She went back up to the Charms corridor and into the little hidden room. The others were already there. She sat down on the couch next to James.  
"You okay?" he whispered to her.  
She nodded and he grasped her hand and squeezed tightly.  
Sirius cleared his throat loudly. "We need to figure out what this map is all about."  
"Oh... I already know," Lily said. "It's a map of the roof of Hogwarts."  
The three of them stared at her. "We have to go up on the roof to get the treasure?" Remus asked.  
"Looks like it," said James.  
"Are there any secret passages that go up there?" Lily wondered.  
Sirius wrinkled up his nose. "Yeah. But it takes a while to get up there. I know a much easier way."  
"What?" Lily asked, feeling sure she wasn't going to like it.  
"Fly."  
"Fly?"  
"On broomsticks, duh." Sirius began to look excited. "Me and James have both got brooms and you two can use the school ones."  
"I don't fly," said Lily queasily. She was still remembering her last adventure in the air.  
"Neither do I," said Remus, who didn't look keen on the idea at all.  
Sirius shrugged. "It's okay. You can just get at the back of me or James'. We've got all of tomorrow to look for it anyway. Last day, remember?"  
"Oh, yeah," said Lily. Suddenly she didn't feel like talking anymore. "Well, if it's all settled, I'll just go back to my dormitory now. See you all tomorrow." She got up, pulled her hand from James' grip and left.  
*****  
Next morning, Lily woke up and tried to remember why she felt so terrible. Then she remembered. Her parents were dead. She felt her stomach sink back down to her toes and she buried her face into her pillows so she wouldn't have to look or talk to anyone for the rest of her life.  
A few minutes later, she could hear everyone else in her dormitory getting up and dressed. Then she heard someone say, "Wake up, Lily, it's the treasure hunt today."  
She buried herself deeper into her pillows. She heard muffled whispering and the next thing she knew, the blankets had been ripped from her bed and she was lying in the freezing cold.  
"Hey!" she said, snatching them back. Genevieve giggled.  
"Wake up, sleepyhead."  
"Go away," Lily snarled, lying down again and trying to get back to sleep so she wouldn't have to think anymore.  
"Is something wrong, Lil?"  
"No."  
"Why are you acting like this?"  
"Like what?"  
"I dunno... just weird."  
Lily felt like screaming, "My parents have just died," but somehow, she knew she wouldn't want anyone else's sympathy. She turned to face Genevieve.  
"I'm sorry I snapped at you... I just don't feel well."  
"That's 'kay. We all have our bad days." She looked at Lily closely. "You've been crying, haven't you?"  
"No, I haven't!"  
"Then why are your eyes all red?"  
"Because," Lily snapped. Then she sighed. "Sorry again. Listen, I have to get ready for the stupid treasure hunt thing, so I'll see you down in the hall, okay?" And she yanked the curtains around her bed before anyone would say anything more.  
*****  
Half an hour later, she was gathered in the Great Hall with all the other sixth years, waiting for Dumbledore to show up. It was quite relief when he did show up because James was driving her crazy by asking her if she was alright and if there was anything he could do to help. He didn't seem to believe her when she said there was nothing. At last, Dumbledore stood up.  
"Hello, again," he said. "So glad to see you all here. Now as you all know, today is the last day you will have to look for the treasure. Some of you will still be working on your clues, others will already be finished. Now, the treasure chest has a powerful bit of magic behind it. The group who touches it first will immediately be transported to the Great Hall and everyone else will be summoned here as well so the presentation can start immediatly. You have until the first group touches the treasure. Make sure you all take it at the same time and that nobody is left behind." He looked around at the expectant faces toward him. "And... your time will begin... now."  
Sirius quickly dragged Lily, James and Remus into a corner of the Great Hall.  
"Now," he said. "We have to get on the roof. Me and James have already hidden our broomsticks outside so we'll just grab them, and fly onto the roof, and have a good look for the treasure and find it before any of the Slytherins do."  
"Okay," said Lily who was to tired to argue with the plan. Besides, she couldn't exactly think of a better one.  
She led the way outside. As soon as they stepped out of the castle doors, a bitter cold wind hit them.  
"Brrr." She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. She had forgotten to bring her cloak with her. James looked at her.  
"Want my cloak?" he offered.  
Sirius grinned. "Aw, how sweet."  
Lily ignored him.  
"I'm alright," she muttered. She glanced up at Sirius. "Where did you hide the broomsticks?"  
"Just over there," said Sirius pointing towards the broomshed. "Don't bother going over, I'll summon them to us." He pointed his wand towards the broomshed. "Accio!"  
Two broomsticks suddenly flew out of the open window towards them, one landing in Sirius' hand, the other in James'.  
"So I just get on the back and we'll fly up there?" Lily asked.  
"Yeah," said Sirius casually. "Well, maybe not straight up there. I might do a few loop the loops or whatever so I can get warmed up..."  
Both Lily and Remus turned slightly green and moved towards James.  
Sirius laughed. "Only joking," he said. "Remus, you're coming with me. I expect the two love birds will want to go together."  
James rolled his eyes at him. Sirius grinned and mounted his broomstick. Remus hopped on the back. "See you two later," he said with a wink, and kicked off, leaving both Lily and James alone.  
James mounted his broomstick. "Coming?" he said. Lily climbed on behind him. James noticed that her hands were shaking slightly from nerves and turned around and smiled slightly. "Don't be scared," he said. "I won't let you fall."  
"I know," Lily whispered and gripped his waist.  
"Ready?" Lily nodded and James kicked off. Once again, she felt the familiar churning sensation in her stomach and held on to James tighter. Then she felt herself relax. Flying with James felt a lot more different than riding with Snape, she felt safer somehow, and more at ease. She was almost sorry when the ride was over and James landed on the roof. He helped her off and was still holding her hand when Sirius and Remus came over to them.  
"Well," Remus said, looking at them both. "Um... we should separate you know. Maybe me and Sirius can search that side of the castle and Lily and James can search this one."  
"Good idea," Sirius said, smirking at them. "If you find anything, shoot up red sparks. C'mon Remus, let's go." And he grabbed Remus by the arm and dragged him away. James looked at Lily.  
"Are you okay?" he asked.  
"Fine."  
"Okay...well... let's start looking."  
"Yeah." Lily nodded. "Look over there. I'll start here."  
"Okay."  
Lily began to search, climbing up and down turrets and tripping over cracks. After ten minutes of searching for God-knows-what, she got incredibly bored and sat down to have a rest. James came over as well, looking hot and tired and bothered.  
"This is stupid," he said, sitting down next to her. "It's too hard going up and down the towers and everything."  
"Yeah, you're right," Lily said yawning. "Maybe we should just leave it to Sirius and Remus to find the treasure."  
James grinned. "That's the best idea anyone's had all day." Then he grew quiet. "Lil?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I meant what I said yesterday."  
"About what?"  
"About you being beautiful." He looked at her and smiled. "You really are the most beautiful girl I've ever laid eyes on."  
Lily blushed. Then she grinned and said, "You're not too bad looking yourself, Mr Potter," and then leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.  
When they broke apart, James grinned at her. "We really should start looking for that treasure again."  
"I know," said Lily with a sigh.  
"I've got an idea."  
"What's that?"  
"Let's get back on the broomstick and look around for a glimpse of that treasure." James looked at her. "That's if you don't mind, of course," he added quickly.  
"'Course not," Lily said, getting up. She stretched. "Come on, let's go."  
A few minutes later, she was on the broomstick again, hanging on James and searching for any signs of the treasure at all. Not that she was searching very hard. She just felt too comfortable leaning her head of James' back to really care. Even the hurt she felt about her parents leaving her had quietened down to a dull ache.  
James, however, was looking carefully, and his sharp eyes caught sight of something unusual on the top of the north tower.  
"Do you think that's weird?"  
"What is?"  
"That thing on the north tower." Lily squinted.  
"That ring?"  
"Yeah, that's it."  
"Think we should check it out?"  
"Yeah, why not?"  
James swooped down and carefully landed on top of the north tower. It was the tallest point in all of Hogwarts. Lily shivered and tried not to look down.  
"It's a trap door," said James, looking at the ring. He didn't seem to be the least bit bothered about being so high up. "You can see the out line of it, see? Now help me pull it up."  
Both of them grasped the ring in the ground. "On the count of three, okay?" James said. "One...two...three." Both of them heaved but the door didn't budge.  
"We need Sirius and Remus," Lily said panting.  
"Yeah... I'll send up the sparks." James quickly shot red sparks into the air.  
A few moments later, Sirius appeared with Remus on the broomsticks and landed on top of the tower with them.  
"Have you found it?" asked Sirius, sounding breathless.  
"I think it's in there," James said, pointing to the trap door. "But we need your help getting it out."  
"Oh, right," said Sirius. He grabbed hold of the ring. The others did the same. "One...two...three...lift!" They all heaved again, and this time the trap door came out, revealing a square opening going directly down wards.  
"Lumos." James lit up his wand and shone it down the opening. "There's a ladder going down."  
"I'll go first," said Sirius, bounding to the front.  
"Lily next," James said. "Then me, then Remus."  
Sirius climbed into to opening and slowly disappeared as he stepped down the ladder. Lily went next and she could see James come in after her.  
It was cold and damp on the way down. It seemed to take a long time going down the ladder, but at long last, she heard Sirius say, "We're here!" and felt herself reach the ground.  
"Lumos," she said and her wand lit up. They were in a small, dark, narrow room. She could see Sirius just in front of her, standing over a large wooden chest triumphantly.  
"The treasure!" she yelled, running forwards, but Sirius held her back.  
"Uh-uh, Lily," he said grinning. "We all have to be here, remember?"  
"Oh, right."  
Soon, she felt James come up behind her, then Remus. "We take the treasure on the count of three, right?" said Sirius, his face absolutely glowing with excitement. "One...two...three." They all grasped a part of the treasure chest.  
immediately, Lily felt her feet being yanked off the ground and found herself spinning through blackness.  
*****  
Lily landed on the ground very suddenly, stumbled, and nearly fell, but someone reached out and caught her arm. It was James. He didn't let go when she had steadied herself, and somehow, she didn't seem to want him to either.  
She suddenly became aware of sudden loud cheering around her. She looked around and found herself on a stage in the centre of the Great Hall with all the other sixth years around her. Most of them were whistling and clapping (except the Slytherins of course who were scowling).  
She saw Sirius on the other side other side of her, grinning furiously, and Remus was there smiling as well. Then she saw the treasure chest which was next to them, and she knew they had one the treasure hunt.  
Dumbledore suddenly appeared on the stage next to them, beaming, and raised his hand to silence the hall.  
"The sixth year treasure hunt is finished at last," he said to crowd of people before him. "And the winners are... Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Lily Brownwell of table four!"  
The hall erupted with cheering again, and then the celebrations began. But Lily didn't feel as though the best part was when Sirius went completely insane and colored the entire room bright purple. It wasn't the best part when Snape suddenly lost it and went stalking out of the room in a huff about losing to his worst enemies. It wasn't even the best part when Dumbledore presented them with the prize for taking the treasure first, a hundred galleons each, plus unlimited sweets from Honeydukes for the rest of their lives. Most definitely, the best part of the whole day was when James lifted her up in front of all those people on the stage and kissed her.  
*****  
Heather Wendall from Hufflepuff house looked at James kissing Lily and scowled. She was the only person in the whole school who's red hair rivaled Lily's, and she had a temper to match it. Her best friend, Rhiannon, read the look on her friend's face and slowly shook her head.  
"Uh-uh," she said. "James is with Lily now."  
"I can see that," Heather said, still glowering at them.  
"So you won't do anything stupid?"  
"Of course not. I never really liked that James Potter anyway." And she stalked off to the buffet table before anyone could say another word.  
*****  
The next morning, Lily was sitting at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast with a definite I-am-in-love look on her face when a barn owl suddenly flew down next to her with a letter tied to its leg.  
After pulling the letter off and offering the owl the rest of her breakfast, Lily unfolded the parchment and read:  
  
Dear Lily,  
Can you meet me outside at about seven after Quidditch practice tonight? I need to give you something important.  
Love, James.  
  
Lily glanced at the Gryffindor table and caught James' eye. She grinned at him and mouthed "Okay," before setting for her classes for the day.  
****  
At seven o'clock, Lily set out for the Quidditch pitch. It was already dark, but she could still make out the shadows of seven people on broomsticks, black against the inky sky, and waited in the stands for them to come down.  
Eventually, they came down and Lily could make out James heading towards her with Sirius. Both of them were laughing at something. James grinned when he saw her.  
"Hi, Lil',' he said. "Ready to go?"  
"Yep," she said.  
"Where are you two off to?" Sirius asked, looking between them suspiciously.  
"Oh, just somewhere," James said vaguely. "I'll be back soon. Meet you up in Gryffindor tower, okay?"  
"Yeah, whatever," Sirius said walked off, leaving the two of them alone.  
"Let's go," James said, grabbing her arm and dragging her in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.  
"Here's a stupid question," said Lily as her dragged her along. "Where are we going?"  
"In here," James said, stopping at the edge of the forest. He smiled when he saw her hesitate. "Don't worry, we're only going a little way in..."  
He took her hand and pulled her along, until they reached a small clearing. Then he sat down on the grass and pulled her down next to him.  
"What're we here for?" she asked him.  
"I came here to give you something."  
"What's that?"  
"Close your eyes."  
"Why?"  
"Just close them."  
Lily obediently shut her eyes. She felt James take her hand and fiddle about with it a bit. After a few more minutes he said, "Okay, open them."  
Lily opened her eyes. Her jaw dropped as she examined the beautiful ruby ring that was now on her hand. She tried to talk, but her mouth didn't seem to want to make any sounds.  
"It was my mother's," James explained. "Before she died. I wanted to give it to you because... well you're the most special girl I know. I haven't known you for long but I know enough to know that I'm already madly in love with you."  
"I love you too, James," Lily whispered, and she put her arms around his neck and kissed him.  
"Wooooohhh!" Suddenly, out of the trees fell out Sirius, Remus, Genevieve and Sara who were all cheering and whistling.  
"What are you guys doing here?" James said, sounding half annoyed and half amused.  
"I couldn't exactly let my dear best friend run off with some girl by himself without telling me where he was going," Sirius said teasingly. "So I bought Remus and Sara and Genevieve over to see what you two were up to. So, when's the wedding date?"  
James threw a clump of grass at Sirius, and they all went back to the castle, arm in arm to what seemed like a rather unromantic finish to such an evening.  
*****  
Heather Wendall was furious. James and Lily and been making eyes at each other across the table for nearly two weeks straight and they still hadn't broken up yet.  
She got up from the Hufflepuff table in huff and stalked into the Entrance Hall and up the marble staircase for her lessons. She was still in a bad mood after her last class and was about to storm downstairs for dinner when she caught sight of James walking down the Charms corridor. He pulled aside a large tapestry of a dragon and disapeared behind it.  
Heather frowned. He couldn't possibly be going to meet that wretched Lily Bronwell again, could he? What was he up to?  
Glancing around to see that no one was watching, she pulled aside the tapestry and found herself staring at the door. She pulled it open and walked inside. James was lying on the couch with his eyes shut, looking as though he had just come in for a quick snooze, but he opened them when Heather came in.  
"Lil?" he said sleepily. "Is that you?" Heather quickly turned off the lights before he could get up and see her properly.  
"Of course it's me,' Heather said in her best imitation of Lily voice. "I've been looking for you all over."  
"Oh, sorry, I didn't know you wanted to see me," he said, sitting up. "Came here for a rest, I was up all night with Sirius and Remus... anyway, what's up?"  
"Oh, nothing much," Heather said, still impersonating Lily. She sat on the couch next to him, as close as she could possible. "I just had to see you again."  
"Then why'd you turn the lights off? Seems a bit weird now that I think of it."  
"I just wanted a bit of privacy," Heather said quickly.  
"You sound different."  
"You think?"  
"Yeah. Your voice is a little deeper then usual."  
"Really?" To distract him, Heather quickly kissed him on the lips and James instantly forgot about her voice and started stroking her hair instead. He pulled away from her slightly.  
"Did you do something to your hair?"  
"Why?"  
"Dunno... just feels different."  
"Yeah, I did something to it this morning. It was a bit of a wreck."  
"Leave it the way it was, okay? I liked it better that way."  
"Okay." Heather rested her head against his chest.  
For a brief instant James wondered if it really was Lily. She was acting a bit weird, not herself. Then he caught a glint of her red hair in the darkness. Nah. It had to be her. Who would be desperate enough to impersonate her to get close to him anyway?  
He suspicions instantly melted when she kissed him again.  
"Love you, James," she said sleepily.  
"Love you too, Lil."  
*****  
Lily walked up the Charms corridor, looking for James. Where was he? He'd told her he's help her with her Transfiguration... which would be very useful if she could find him!  
She wondered vaguely if he was in the common room and whether she should ask another Gryffindor to get him for her when she caught sight of the tapestry that hid the secret room. Maybe he was in there.  
She pulled the tapestry aside and opened the door. It was dark inside. She flicked on the light.  
"James? Are you in here..." her voice trailed off. She stood, frozen in shock and felt her stomach slide down to her toes.  
James was in there all right. In there with another girl. She was sitting so close to him she was almost on his lap, and she had her arm clasped around his neck and was kissing him, but James didn't seem to mind at all, on the contrary he had his arm around her and was stroking her hair with the other... the way he used to do to her.  
It was then James seemed to realize he was being watched. He pulled apart from the girl he was kissing and looked up at the doorway.  
"Lily?" he said in disbelief.  
Lily didn't wait to see what he was going to do, she turned her heel and ran down the corridor, crying.  
How could he, the man of her dreams, someone who'd told her that he'd loved her and even given her his mother's ring, go off like that behind her back.  
She searched desperately for an explanation, no doubt there was one, there had to be one! But she couldn't find one, and the reason for it was simple, he had cheated on her and that was all there was to it.  
She could hear James running and calling after her, but she didn't care, she dashed down the marble stair case and was halfway across the Great Hall when James caught up to her, grabbed her arm and whirled her around.  
"Lily," he gasped, clutching at a stitch on his side. "I can explain..."  
"Explain what? That you told me you loved me and the next thing I know I find you with another girl cheating on me?" She was yelling now, and tears were streaming down her face. The Great Hall and suddenly gone very quiet and every head was looking their way.  
James looked hurt. "Lil, if you'll just let me explain..."  
"I don't want to hear any of your stupid explanations! As far as I can see, there's nothing more for us to talk about. I hate you James Potter and I never want to see you, or speak to you again!" Lily yelled. She wrenched the ring off her finger and threw it at him as hard as she could, then ran the rest of the way down the Great Hall, crying.  
She dashed into her dormitory and threw herself onto her bed, sobbing. A few minutes later, she could hear Sara and Genevieve come into the room and hop onto the bed with her.  
"What happened?" Sara asked her, patting her back. "We saw you yelling at James in the Great Hall and crying... what's up?"  
Lily could only cry harder. Eventually, through much coaxing and petting through Sara and Genevieve's part, the whole story came out, and soon both of them were patting her on the back sympathetically.  
"He's really not worth it then, if he cheated on you," Genevieve said quietly.  
Lily wiped her eyes with the back of her robes. "No. He's not."  
"Then you should stop crying and forget about him," said Sara.  
Lily nodded. Then she punched her pillow angrily and burst into another fresh flood of tears.  
"Damn him! Why did he have to be so wonderful?" she sobbed, burying her head into her pillow.  
"Oh, Lily," said Genevieve, looking down at her helplessly.  
Lily pulled her face out from her pillow. "I'm sorry. I'm being silly. You guys don't have to stay with me. I'll be fine by myself."  
"Are you sure?" Sara asked, looking at her anxiously. Lily nodded.  
"Yes. I need to get some sleep. Goodnight." And she quickly yanked the curtains around her bed.  
*****  
The next few days at Hogwarts were Lily's most miserable yet. She wasn't talking to James at all, and refused to meet his eyes or even go any where near him. Remus pulled her aside one Arithmancy lesson to talk to her.  
"You two should make up, you know. He loves you and I'm sure you love him."  
"No, I don't," Lily said stubbornly. Remus sighed.  
"You're miserable without each other! James has been moping around all week. I even found his crying one day. He didn't mean to kiss that girl, you know. He thought it was you."  
Lily flushed. "Yeah, right. Like I'm really going to believe that. He lied to me. He told me he loved me."  
"He does love you!"  
"No he doesn't. If he did, he wouldn't have gone off with that other girl." And she walked off before Remus could say another word.  
Then the word got around that there was going to be a Sixth Year Ball at a special hall in Diagon Alley. Heaps of boys had asked Lily to partner them, but she didn't feel like going with any of them. She only wanted James, though she would never admit it to anyone.  
"Oh, come on, Lily, you have to go with someone," said Genevieve in despair.  
"No. I don't want to," Lily muttered.  
"Just go with James. He hasn't asked anyone to go with him either, and I know he really wants to go to you..."  
"I wouldn't go with him if he were the last boy on the planet," Lily said furiously and stalked back upstairs to her dormitory.  
*****  
The day of the ball, Lily half-heartedly got dressed in her new dress robes which were a forget-me-not blue and pulled her hair up. She didn't care if she looked nice or not.  
Genevieve, however, whistled as she went down the stairs to the common room.  
"You look beautiful, Lily," she said. Then she whispered in her ear: "Are you sure you don't want to go with James?"  
"Yes!" Lily snapped and stalked away before Genevieve could ask anymore stupid questions about her and James.  
They were to go to Diagon Alley by the Hogwarts Express, and for some stupid reason, Professor McGonagall had asked that all the prefects sit in the front carriage.  
Lily was the last one in. Looking around, she saw that the only spare seats was one next to James and another next to Snape. She chose to sit next to Snape and caught sight of the hurt look on James' face as she sat beside him. Their eyes met for a moment and Lily quickly looked away and out the window. She could feel James still watching her.  
Snape seemed to be watching them both with an amused expression on his face. As the train set off, he leaned closer towards her and put his mouth close to her ear.  
"Having a few boyfriend problems, Lily?"  
Lily moved away from him. "What's it to you?" she snapped.  
An unpleasant grin spread over Snape's face. "I can offer you much more than Potter can, Lily."  
Lily glared at him suspiciously. "What do you mean?"  
Snape put his face even closer to hers and said, "I hear the Dark Lord's getting stronger every day. You're a mudblood witch, aren't you."  
"I'm Muggle born if that's what you mean," Lily said stiffly.  
"The Dark Lord doesn't like mudbloods, Lily," Snape whispered to her. "He is slowly killing them off, one by one. I can help you there, Lily. I have... let's say, inside connections in his little circle of friends."  
Lily could see James watching them from the corner of his eye. Snape's face was so close now she could feel his breath on her cheek. James was still watching them.  
Oh, what the hell, Lily thought to herself. If James can do it, then so can I!  
Before she could think, she grabbed Snape and kissed him on the lips. Then she pulled apart from him, horrified at what she'd just done.  
She turned around just as James suddenly jumped out of his seat and ran out of the compartment.  
"James!" she yelled, jumping up to run after him, but Snape had caught hold of her arm.  
"We haven't finished our conversation yet," Snape said in his oily voice, but LILY shook him off.  
"LET ME GO, SNAPE!" she yelled, then she drew back her fist and punched him in the eye before running out of the compartment after James.  
"James'" she yelled, looking around for him but not seeing him anywhere. "James!"  
Suddenly, a hand came out of nowhere and yanked her into an empty compartment. It was Sirius, and he had Remus with him.  
"What," Sirius said, looking furious at her, "did you think you were doing kissing Snape?"  
Just then, Genevieve and Sara came running into their compartment. Both of them were breathless.  
"What happened?" Sara gasped.  
"lLily kissed Snape," Remus explained.  
"You WHAT?" Genevieve looked flabbergasted.  
"I didn't mean to!" Lily sobbed. "I-I just wasn't thinking straight. I don't even like Snape. I only ever wanted James." She buried her face in her hands and burst into a fresh flood of tears. "Oh, just go away," she said. "I only want James."  
She heard them muttering to themselves for a few minutes, then heard the carriage door slam shut. She cried to herself for what seemed like ages past, then heard the carriage door slide open again.  
"Go away!" she snapped without opening her eyes to see who it was. But whoever it was sat down beside her and put their arms around her, holding her close. Lily opened her eyes in a hurry.  
"James?" She whispered, looking up. James nodded and smiled at her, cradling her head against his chest. She hugged him tight and cried into his robes. "Oh, James, I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me..."  
"Shh," James said suddenly. He gently lifted her face to meet his and kissed her. "It's okay, Lil. I know you didn't mean to."  
"And I know you didn't mean to kiss that other girl either," Lily said. "I'm sorry for getting mad."  
"I'm sorry I ever thought Heather Wendall was you," James said, stroking her hair. Lily looked up at him.  
"I've messed up your robes again," she said.  
"It's okay," James said. He smiled. "You've never looked more beautiful."  
"And you've never looked more incredibly handsome."  
"You mean that?"  
"Of course."  
"I've got something for you."  
"Really? What?"  
James reached down into his robes pocket and pulled out the ring. He carefully placed it on her finger.  
"I've been carrying this around, hoping you might want it back one day. And I would be very much obliged if you could accompany me to the ball today."  
"Of course," Lily said, and kissed him again. "Love you, James."  
"Love you too, Lil."  
And they both lived happily ever after.  
  
****************THHHEEEEEE EEEENNNNNNNDDDDDDD**********************  
  
A/N: I am really, really really sorry this took so long to put up. I didn't think it would take me this long. So I'm sorry. And I'm sorry that the end was so rushed. I didn't really know how to end it, so I might think about fixing it up later on. I'm sorry if i've made any errors or anything. Review?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
